Lotte Shopping pays aggressively to consolidate its position in South Korea, acquiring three department stores and 14 discount stores from GS Retail for $1.12 billion.

Lotte is taking over three GS Square department stores and 14 GS Mart hypermarkets or discount stores, increasing its portfolio of department stores in Korea to 33 and its discount stores to 83. The South Korean retail chain dominates the department store segment in Korea, but ranks third in the hypermarket segment after Shinsegae's E-Mart chain and Tesco's Home Plus...